News Releases

Among patients with depression, the presence of symptoms associated with bipolar disorder does not appear to be associated with treatment resistance, according to a study from MGH investigators. However, many patients with depression also report psychotic-like symptoms, such as hearing voices or believing they are being spied on or plotted against, and those patients are less likely to respond to treatment.

Psychotic-like symptoms associated with poor outcomes in patients with depression

Among patients with depression, the presence of many aspects of illness which may be associated with bipolar disorder does not appear to be associated with treatment resistance—evidence against the common hypothesis that some cases of difficult-to-treat depression are actually unrecognized bipolar disorder, according to a report posted online today that will appear in the April 2011 print issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. However, many patients with depression also report psychotic-like symptoms, such as hearing voices or believing they are being spied on or plotted against, and those who do are less likely to respond to treatment.